For 10 years, Jerome Louison built his woodworking business in the basement of his Highland home, handcrafting everything from golf clubs to bedroom sets.

"It's all come along," Mr. Louison said. "I don't know if it's come along like I planned, but it's come along nicely."

So nicely, in fact, that two months ago he moved his business, Louison Woodworks, into the Savage Mill.

"It's like living a dream," he said.

Mr. Louison is one of a growing number of artisans who have moved into the old mill since renovations that began in April 1986 were completed almost a year ago.

The mill is about 85 percent leased. In recent months, it has attracted as tenants a photographer, who captured Virginia's Luray Caverns on film without a flash, and a maker of hand-knit sweaters whose most noted customer was actor-comedian Bill Cosby.

"We're not looking for The Gap or retailers you find at the mall," said Beverly Schwink, the manager. "We're looking for the unusual, different."

People like Mr. Louison, fit that description, she said. "He's a specialty retailer. He creates his product. Most of the people here create their product."

Mr. Louison custom-builds all his wares by hand, mostly from ideas he comes up with himself.

"We're romantics with wood," he said of himself and those who treat furniture-making as an art and not just as a business.

Using a computer at his home, Mr. Louison designs the furniture. His workday begins with computer design work at 7 a.m. He then travels to the mill, where he opens the shop at about 10 a.m., five days a week.

He uses only the finest domestic woods, such as cherry, walnut and ash. He looks at the pieces of wood for detail that would make the furniture unique. Such detail might include a wavy grain, or a grain that looks like turkey feathers.

"I'm in it for the business, but I'm in it for the woodworking, too," said Mr. Louison, a 48-year-old husband, father of five and grandfather of eight.

He hand-carves joints for his furniture and often uses antique chisels, scrapers and saws. "I believe there is a spirit that goes along with a lot of the old tools," he said.

He is the business' only full-time worker, but has two apprentices who work part time, while studying at the University of Maryland Baltimore County. One of them is Mr. Louison's 22-year-old son-in-law, Mark Fauntlery, who started working with him six years ago.